By Franklin Lamb
April 8, 2010
Al-Manar
April 8, 2010
Al-Manar
"More than six decades after their expulsion from Palestine, Lebanon’s unwanted refugees just might be granted some basic civil rights….
Part I: Hiba’s Story
Ein el Helwe Palestinian Refugee Camp, Lebanon
Granting even the most elementary and normally taken for granted civil rights to Palestinians in Lebanon won’t be easy and it may not be pretty. Yet there is undeniable and growing Lebanese and international resolve for Lebanon’s politicians to end a dark bleak chapter in Arab brotherly relations.
The disturbing paradox of Lebanon depriving its refugees of the most elementary civil rights, some of which are even granted Palestinians by their arch-nemesis, the Zionist occupiers of their own country, is increasingly being condemned in Lebanon. In addition, there is the gaping contradiction between the sweet words and the clarion trumpeting calls by groups wanting to liberate Jerusalem and all of Palestine and enforce the internationally mandated Right of Return (UNSCR 194), while at the same time appearing to avert their eyes from the very ones seeking to return and who exist in abject squalor, humiliation and indignity, thus appearing to tolerate their brothers and sisters’ degradation. These contradictions are motivating expanding panoply of Lebanese leaders, civil society organizations, side by side with local and international NGO’s, to demand civil rights legislation from the current Cabinet and Parliament. What civil rights advocates seek is compliance with basic international law and indeed Lebanon’s Constitution, both sources of law mandating civil rights for Palestine refugees including the right to work and to own a home......
The only four jobs listed by the Lebanese Ministry of Labor that are open to Palestinian refugees are:
1. midwife
2. financial brokerage firm owner
3. roving photographer
4. land surveyor.
Part I: Hiba’s Story
Ein el Helwe Palestinian Refugee Camp, Lebanon
Granting even the most elementary and normally taken for granted civil rights to Palestinians in Lebanon won’t be easy and it may not be pretty. Yet there is undeniable and growing Lebanese and international resolve for Lebanon’s politicians to end a dark bleak chapter in Arab brotherly relations.
The disturbing paradox of Lebanon depriving its refugees of the most elementary civil rights, some of which are even granted Palestinians by their arch-nemesis, the Zionist occupiers of their own country, is increasingly being condemned in Lebanon. In addition, there is the gaping contradiction between the sweet words and the clarion trumpeting calls by groups wanting to liberate Jerusalem and all of Palestine and enforce the internationally mandated Right of Return (UNSCR 194), while at the same time appearing to avert their eyes from the very ones seeking to return and who exist in abject squalor, humiliation and indignity, thus appearing to tolerate their brothers and sisters’ degradation. These contradictions are motivating expanding panoply of Lebanese leaders, civil society organizations, side by side with local and international NGO’s, to demand civil rights legislation from the current Cabinet and Parliament. What civil rights advocates seek is compliance with basic international law and indeed Lebanon’s Constitution, both sources of law mandating civil rights for Palestine refugees including the right to work and to own a home......
The only four jobs listed by the Lebanese Ministry of Labor that are open to Palestinian refugees are:
1. midwife
2. financial brokerage firm owner
3. roving photographer
4. land surveyor.
All Palestinian job seekers for the “available” four jobs are required to have been issued the nearly impossible to obtain work permit....."
No comments:
Post a Comment